Weekend Heller – February 22, 2013

Six Things: Sagmeister & Walsh, on view at The Jewish Museum from March 15 through August 4, 2013, marks the first exhibition of their new design firm Sagmeister & Walsh. For the last ten years, Sagmeister has researched the nature of happiness, asking, “Is it possible to train my mind in the same way I can train my body?”

In five short films and a sculpture, the studio investigates six things, culled from Sagmeister’s diary, that he believes have increased his personal happiness such as: “Now Is Better” and “If I Don’t Ask I Won’t Get.”

In addition, intrigued by a recent nationwide survey in which Jews reported the highest levels of well-being of all religious groups, Sagmeister & Walsh are placing a text in the gallery that connects this scientific data to his personal exploration of happiness.

A must see, at least six times.

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Paolo Ventura’s Elegant Zouaves

Zouave was the title given to certain light infantry regiments in the French Army, normally serving in French North Africa between 1831 and 1962. The name was also adopted during the 19th century by units in other armies, especially volunteer regiments raised for service in the U.S. Civil War. The distinguishing characteristics of such units were the zouave uniform, which included short open-fronted jackets, baggy trousers and often sashes and oriental headgear.

I can never get enough of Paolo Ventura’s posed environments carved out of the past with such mysterious accuracy. His Lo Zuavo Scomparso is on view in Seoul, Korea at the Gallery Baton (Feb 13 – Mar 16). Worth a long flight to see it.

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An Iceberg on Your Desktop

Iceber.gs is a visual organization app for creative people, to collaborate, organize and share everything from videos and websites to document files of any kind. Founded by Spanish designer Albert Pereta and business associate, César Isern, this began as a thesis product for the SVA MFA Design: Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program and has blossomed into a full fledged launch. Get a preview of its features here.

Iceber.gs desktop organizing tool.

Store and share any files.

Collaboration made easy.

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Child Labor on Design Observer

Here is an excerpt from my brief childhood memory published on Design Observer Oblog:

I got my very first job was when I was 13 years old (and only eligible for temporary working papers) in the advertising department of Bergdorf Goodman in New York. You’d think I was a prodigy, but that’s not true. A friend of the family — a buyer for Bergdorf’s — got me hired on Saturdays to work the Addressograph. Among other things, this was the machine used to create “charge plates.” Before plastic credit, consumers carried card-sized metal, not unlike dogtags, from which an impression of one’s’ name and address were printed on invoices.

The original charge plate made by Addressograph.

I was hired to input the names, which were embossed on the plates. I lasted two days, before the boss-lady realized I reversed many of the letters. What’s more, I had not yet learned the fine craft of touch typing, so I slowly produced one plate every five minutes or so. (The norm was one every 20 seconds). I was asked to resign, and was then offered a stock boy job instead, but after this white-collar assignment, I wasn’t about to go blue. . . . (more here),

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Carbon Copy?

Illustrator Emiliano Ponzi recently discovered that “I was victim of plagiarism,” and wrote about it here. “Just to explain this quickly,” he told me, “an illustrator from Slovenia took two of my illustrations (one was quite well known because it was a New York Times Book Review cover), adjusted colors, put his name on them and published in a magazine.” Sometimes ideas are in the air, but line-for-line doppelgangers are pushing it.

About Steven Heller

Steven Heller is the co-chair of the SVA MFA Designer /Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program, writes a weekly column for The Atlantic online and is the "Visuals" Columnist for the New York Times Book Review. He is also the author of over 160 books on design and visual culture. And he is the 2011 recipient of the Smithsonian National Design Award.